Portland Thorns 4, Houston Dash 1 - Instant Reaction
The Thorns exploded for four goals in a welcome return to form to grab their first win of 2024.
The Portland Thorns returned home where they picked up their first win of the season in a very decisive manner against the Houston Dash on Saturday night. They cruised past the Dash 4-1 with goals from Christine Sinclair, Sophia Smith, Olivia Moultrie, and Janine Beckie.
It was Portland’s first game under interim head coach Rob Gale and he made a few changes to the lineup. Sinc replaced Beckie and Fleming replaced Moultrie ahead of the match against Houston.
The game started off a little bit more settled than the last few for the Thorns, as they managed to keep their opponent off the board early — and then score an early goal of their own.
The first goal of the game and of the season for Sinclair came after she buried the deflection off a shot from Hina Sugita. With that goal, Sinclair became the first player to score in all 11 NWSL seasons.
Sinclair’s goal marked first time this season that the Thorns have led in a match and the crowd was ecstatic.
Soph made her mark in the 28th minute by taking the ball back off a Houston player via Portland’s counter-press and burying it in the back of the net. Portland’s counter-press was active and effective all night, as it flummoxed Houston at all avenues.
This game finally began to feel like a Thorns game, as they were on the front foot and connecting strings of passes like nobodies business. Houston had very few opportunities on goal in the first half — however the one most dangerous one they did was beautifully tipped over the bar by Shelby Hogan.
A big reason the Thorns dominated was due to their active midfield, and especially Hina Sugita. She really put in the work this match, appearing seemingly everywhere.
Portland went into halftime with a 2-0 lead, and with Providence Park rocking.
The Thorns began the second half the same way they started the match and with the ball at their feet, but the Dash would find their way back into game.
Houston started the scoring early in the second half, with their goal coming from Diana Ordoñez who capitalized off a lapse in the Thorns defense.
The Dash found their longest stint of possession around the 55th minute after putting away their goal.
But the thorns quickly stepped it up again with Sinc intercepting a pass and finding Soph who’s shot makes it to Campbells waiting arms to stop Houston’s momentum.
Janine Beckie replaced Sinclair in the 61st minute. Sinc played phenomenally in this match, and got her first goal of the year for her efforts.
Payton Linnehan made her NWSL debit coming on for Morgan Weaver. Linnehan was the first draft pick for the Thorns at this years draft and had worked tirelessly to work her way back from injury. Olivia Moultrie also came on replacing Fleming.
Overall the game seemed to settle a bit in the last 15 minutes, however, the Thorns were still able to find chances, like when Beckie had a header that almost found side netting.
Houston player Elin Rubenson picked up Houston’s second yellow of the match. There was some confusion after the red card was initially shown to Ordoñez, who was already on a yellow, after the referee corrected the decision and showed the yellow to Rubenson.
Houston was starting to get chippy as the game wandered into the final 10 minutes. Beckie found herself on the other end of a particularly tough challenge and was slow to get back up.
Smith put some fire into the game as she almost broke away 1v1 against Campbell but the keeper was able to collect it.
Houston almost found the late equalizer after pressing a pass from Hogan, but luckily the deflection went out of play and not into the back of the net.
The Thorns almost replied with a ball ping-ponging around the 18 before finally falling to Campbell. This last period had been very back and forth but the teen wonder Olivia Moultrie made her mark on the game.
Sophia Smith nicked the ball of a defender and passed to Moultrie in the middle of the box. Liv drove one home ensuring for the third goal, and all but ensuring that this would be the first Thorns victory of the season.
In an onslaught of attacks from Portland Soph almost had a brace but her shot went just wide. This is Thorns soccer baby — I think it’s back.
A whole 8 minutes of stoppage time is added to this match, and in that time Linnehan was so close to making it four for the thorns but the foot of Campbell denied her.
Klingenberg took the pitch in stoppage time replacing Müller, and Ana Dias replaced Smith in the 95th minute to maker her Thorns and NWSL debut.
To put the icing on the cake, Janine Beckie intercepted a pass and then drove towards goal, and then scored to make it 4-1 in the 96th minute. The Thorns are for sure back!
The whistle for full time blew with the Thorns walloping the Dash 4-1, and earning their first three points of the season.
Scoring Summary
Portland: Sinclair (6’), Smith (27’), Moultrie (87’), Beckie (90’+10)
Houston: Ordoñez (49’)
Next Up:
The Thorns hit the road again to take on Chicago on April 27th at 4:30 PT, with the game once again on ION.
She's here, she's there, she's every f"&#$ing where, Hina, Hina!
Houston tax notwithstanding, really encouraging performance:
- Have a fucking debut rook! It's rare you see rookies come in and light up a match like Linnehan did: Inches away from a goal and an assist, and it was her quick thinking on the throw-in that lead to the Moultrie goal that put the game away. It's early yet, but I'd loveeee to see her get the RW role opposite Weaver at some point this year. Looked electric.
-This is probably the Thorns best midfield three at the moment, and I'm glad Gale recognized the need to axe the 4-3-3 in his first match as interim. I'd like to see a little (a lot) more evidence against better teams, but I'm willing to consider the possibility that Fleming might be better suited to playing as a 10 in the NWSL in some matches like she did tonight. She wasn't perfect --still too many times when she was slightly out of step with her teammates-- but she also had some real excellent moments and looked like the Jessie Fleming I know for the first time tonight.
- It's a privilege --not a problem--to have Fleming, Moultrie, and Hina as options at 8/10. Hina should be a locked-in starter when available, but I'm totally fine with rotating Fleming and Moultrie, or even playing both with Hina on the wing. Good teams have multiple options and I'm not at all concerned about a minutes crunch.
- Obaze is just better than Hubly straight up. Her teammates trust her with the ball and she has the ability and confidence to play passes Hubly just can't. She gets that spot.
- Hogan, on the other hand....man. Just bummed for her that she hasn't taken advantage of this opportunity because it might be career-defining. Starting GK spots are real hard to come by, and she very nearly cost us the game when she dallied on the ball and allowed Ordonez to make a tackle.
- Weaver needs to wake up! Waaay too slow and hesitant from her so far this season.
- Müller's legit, what a second half from her. Everywhere offensively and defensively.
- This Soph on the wing thing better *only* be something they do when Sinc's in the game.